Doctoral Dissertation Research: Seasonal Projectile Point Use in Eastern Beringia During the late Pleistocene/early Holocene: An Experimental Approach

博士论文研究：晚更新世/早全新世期间东白令海峡的季节性射弹点使用：一种实验方法

• 批准号: 1544558
• 负责人: William Andrefsky
• 金额: $ 1.73万
• 依托单位: Washington State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-01 至 2017-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1544558&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Seasonal; Projectile

Human migration into new territories is relevant for people in all times and places. How do people exist in lower population densities? How do they adapt to new contexts and subsistence resources? With Alaska representing an entrance point for some of the first people coming to the Western Hemisphere, approximately 14,000 years ago, Alaskan archaeology becomes a natural laboratory for understanding these adaptive behaviors. This investigations examines adaptive strategies through the analysis of archaeological and experimental tools kits used by the first inhabitants of Alaska. Within the broader context of this project implications regarding the peopling, and colonization, of Alaska and the highly flexible nature of their toolkits that persisted through much of time are examined through a unique experimental archaeology approach. Examining how, and by what means, these individuals were able to adapt to this harsh frontier is of keen interest to understand the flexible, and complex nature of humans exploring and utilizing a new landscape.Based on artifact form and assemblage structure it has been inferred by some researchers that different cultural complexes may have existed during the late Pleistocene/early Holocene. However, can an examination of certain artifacts at archaeological sites really be indicative of different cultural complexes? Is it feasible that different migrations of people into Alaska would have different toolkits? These interpretations seem to limit the adaptable nature of humans to different situations and not view the entire archaeological system. It seems highly likely that multiple facets (e.g., situational tasks, prey type, seasonality, and others) impacted the assemblage structure of hunter-gatherers in the past and each needs to be explored on its own terms. Within this project experimental archaeology will be implemented to examine the way that different projectile technologies fare in different temperatures, based on seasonality. The project will investigate seasonality from current seasonal data, archaeological sites that have seasonal evidence, the ethnographic record, and an experimental approach to solidify seasonal implications for Alaska during the late Pleistocene/early Holocene. For instance if certain tool stone becomes brittle and fractures in a specific way when propelled in a controlled context it may be possible to examine the breakage and compare it back to an archaeological site with no seasonal data and assign a seasonal occupation, elucidating hunter-gatherer lifeways in prehistory. This approach will address questions regarding the aspects of different groups of people on the landscape or a single group using different adaptive strategies based on situational factors, fracture patterns of projectile technologies, the performance of different projectile systems, and the susceptibility of different types of tool stone to cold weather. Data generated through this study will serve as a novel approach to interpreting human behavior during the earliest periods of occupation on the landscape of Alaska and hunter-gatherer studies as a whole.

人类迁移到新领土上与所有时间和地点的人们有关。 人们如何存在较低的人口密度？ 他们如何适应新的环境和生存资源？ 大约14，000年前，阿拉斯加代表了一些进入西半球的第一批人的入口点，阿拉斯加考古学成为理解这些适应性行为的自然实验室。 这项调查通过分析阿拉斯加第一居民使用的考古和实验工具套件来研究适应性策略。 在这个项目的更广泛的背景下，通过独特的实验考古学方法来检查有关阿拉斯加人民和殖民化的殖民地以及其工具包的高度灵活性。研究这些人如何以及通过什么手段来适应这种严酷的边界是敏锐的兴趣，以了解人类探索和利用新景观的灵活性和复杂性。基于人工式形式和组合结构，一些研究人员已经推断出一些研究人员推断出，不同的文化复合物可能在晚期pleistiscene晚期/早期全新环境中可能存在。但是，考古遗址上某些人工制品的检查是否真的表明了不同的文化综合体？人们将不同的人迁移到阿拉斯加会有不同的工具包，这是可行的吗？这些解释似乎限制了人类对不同情况的适应性，而不看整个考古体系。似乎多个方面（例如情境任务，猎物类型，季节性等）影响了过去的狩猎采集者的组合结构，并且每个方面都需要以其自己的方式进行探索。在该项目中，将实施实验考古学，以研究基于季节性的不同温度下不同温度的弹丸技术的方式。该项目将调查当前季节性数据，具有季节性证据的考古站点，人种学记录以及实验方法，以巩固在更新世晚期/早期全新世期间对阿拉斯加的季节性影响。例如，如果某些工具石在受控的环境中推动时以特定方式易碎，则可以检查破裂，并将其比较回到没有季节性数据的考古遗址，并分配季节性职业，并阐明了史前历史上的猎人 - 采集者的生活。这种方法将使用基于情境因素，弹丸技术的断裂模式，不同弹丸系统的性能以及不同类型的工具石对寒冷天气的敏感性，使用不同的自适应策略，使用不同的自适应策略来解决有关景观不同群体或单一组各个方面的问题。通过这项研究产生的数据将是一种新型的方法，可以在阿拉斯加和整个猎人 - 采集者研究的最早占领期间解释人类行为。